BRANCHES
CENTRAL BROOKLYN
CBK-DSA Night School: Prisons, Mass Incarceration, & Abolition
Join the Central Brooklyn DSA political education committee on Thursday, June 25th at 7:00 pm for the second in a three-part discussion series on police, prisons, and riots. In our second session, we will continue the discussions started in session one and examine the US prison empire, perhaps the largest and most heinous in world history. We will also discuss abolitionist campaigns like No New Jails and the ongoing Free Them All campaign, and the way socialists can promote a vision beyond the liberal call for “prison reform.” Opening remarks by NYC-DSA abolitionist organizers will be followed by group discussion in small and large groups.
Thursday, June 25th 7 PM
Visit bit.ly/cbkdsanightschool for a calendar of all upcoming Night School sessions. We’ll be producing events monthly!
SOUTH BROOKLYN
SBK DSA Reading Group: Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower”
Join the SBK Fiction book club as we discuss Octavia Butler’s classic novel Parable of the Sower. Butler’s 1993 novel takes place in a 2020s overridden with corporate greed, racism, and environmental collapse — very different from the 2020s of today! The goal of the SBK Fiction series is to use fiction as a vehicle for political education. We will discuss both the literary/formal qualities of the work and its political implications with the goal of understanding how fiction can become a tool for socialist change.
Saturday, June 27th 5 – 7 PM
SBK Poli Ed Reading Group on Racism & Abolition
ZOOM RSVP TO COME!
The South Brooklyn Branch is hosting a three part study group on racism and abolition in the United States. This is open to anyone who wants to discuss these topics in light of the Black uprising against police brutality and systemic racism. The history of slavery, Jim Crow, and the ‘war on drugs’ has shaped this country as much as slave rebellions, the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, and BLM. The history and dynamics are alive and well. Time to discuss and draw inspiration from the Black struggle, then and now, alongside the ongoing protests.
Friday, July 3rd 6 PM
RSVP on Facebook for Zoom info!
NORTH BROOKLYN
NBK Reading Group: Alex Vitale’s “The End Of Policing”
Join North Brooklyn DSA for a three-part reading group of the book The End of Policing by Alex Vitale. You can pick up the ebook for free from Verso, and we encourage everyone interested to attend, even if you don’t finish the reading or missed an earlier meeting.
We’re excited to be joined by the author Alex Vitale for part three of the reading group on Sunday, July 12th. Check out the rest of the schedule and assigned chapters below.
RSVP AT THE LINKS BELOW:
Part 1: Sunday, June 28th from 2 to 4 pm ET (Chapters 1-3) Sign up here.
Part 2: Sunday, July 5th from 2 to 4 pm ET (Chapters 4-7) Sign up here.
Part 3 (w/ author Alex Vitale): Sunday, July 12th from 2 to 4 pm ET (Chapters 8-10 & Conclusion) Sign up here.
BRONX/UPPER MANHATTAN
B/UM Poli Ed Reading Group: Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid
The B/UM Political Education Working Group is continuing its reading group on Mutual Aid by Peter Kropotkin!
Sign up for the next session here.
Thursday, June 25th 7 – 9 PM
WORKING GROUPS
SOCIALIST FEMINIST WG
Weekly Soc Fem Teach-Ins
As we all chug through this interminable quarantine, the NYC-DSA SocFem Political Education Committee is committed to continuing political education in this time of crisis. To that end, we are planning weekly ongoing political education sessions using Zoom. You can find the calendar of all our upcoming events on our website.
Down With Rainbow Capitalism – A Queer Socialist Reading Group
In the past decade, we’ve seen a stark increase in rainbow capitalism, with corporations and cops endorsing pride. A class of queers — mostly white, often cis men — has gained entrance into the U.S., and to some extent global, elite. At the same time, we’ve seen radical organizing against capitalist and imperialist appropriation of queer history and struggle.
We’ll contextualize these trends by first grounding ourselves in two weeks of queer Marxist theory. Then, we’ll trace the historical relationship between Marxism and queer people and movements, from the USSR to mid-century queer liberation, and to contemporary worker’s struggles. Finally, we’ll dig deeper into a few themes, including queerness and sex work; trans history; AIDs activism; NGO-ization and marriage; imperialism; and incarceration.
Our aim is to emerge with a deeper understanding of queerness and leftism, and to be more empowered to organize for a socialism that includes the liberation of all people oppressed by our current gender and sexual system. If you can’t formally join the group but want to check out the texts we’ll be reviewing, take a look at our syllabus.
SIGN UP FOR THE READING GROUP!
First Session Monday, July 13th 7-9 PM
CAUCUSES / COMMITTEES
MASS STRIKE FOR REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
The Mass Strike for Reproductive Freedom is a campaign of the DSA’s Nationwide Socialist Feminist Working Group. We believe that issues of reproduction exist in all arenas where we must challenge capitalism and that we must take direct action to fight back against anti-abortion extremism.
You can join us by going to bit.ly/MassStrikeJoin
Reading Rosa Reading Group – Discussion on Sections 5+6
Under the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosa Luxemburg’s prophetic words “Socialism or Barbarism” loom large over all of us. Unemployment is soaring, essential workers are risking their lives without proper PPE, parents are struggling to homeschool their children, tenants cannot pay their rent, and especially important to us – the COVID-19 pandemic is being used to rob pregnant people of their right to abortion. We need a mass strike, the question is how to do it.
Rosa tells us that we cannot proclaim a mass strike into happening, but then what are the conditions necessary to produce mass unrest from the working class? What can we learn from the successful revolutions of the past? In this 5 part reading group, we’ll discuss these questions and more!
Discussion on Sections 5+6: June 27th 4-6 PM
These are just the events coming up in the next few weeks. We’ll be sending this newsletter twice a month, so stay tuned for future updates!
If you did not see your poli ed event listed here or want to make sure you’re included in future newsletters, please don’t hesitate to reach out to simone.norman1@gmail.com